The chairman of the central bank of Kazakhstan said that the bank has prepared legislation to prohibit the sale and purchase of cryptocurrencies in the country as well as any kind of crypto mining, citing several risks he sees.

National Bank’s Crackdown on Crypto

The chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan Daniyar Akishev said on Friday that “Kazakhstan intends to prohibit the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies and any kind of mining of cryptocurrencies” in an interview with Ria Novosti.

The publication quoted the central banker stating:

In Kazakhstan, the National Bank is very conservative about this issue [cryptocurrency]. I welcome only rather stringent restrictions, that is, we want to prohibit the purchase and sale of the national currency for cryptocurrency. We want to prohibit the activity of exchanges on this segment and any kinds of mining.

Risks the Central Bank Sees

Akishev claims to see a lot of problems concerning cryptocurrencies, especially pertaining to the protection of customers’ rights.

Daniyar Akishev.

He was quoted by the news outlet declaring his intention to “minimize the risks associated with the national market,” adding that “but for sure, not one central bank has full functionality to administer this market [cryptocurrency] in a cross-border market, so at the very least, we must stop this risk through the national currency.”

Another major risk, he described, “is the possibility of [using] cryptocurrency to commit illegal activities,” the publication noted, and quoted Akishev asserting, “Cryptocurrency is an ideal tool for money laundering and for avoiding taxation.” He noted that the central bank’s position on crypto “is supported by the majority of state bodies of Kazakhstan,” and was quoted by Ria Novosti saying:

We have prepared amendments to the legislation that should lead to this tightening.

In October of last year, Akishev said that the central bank proposed to restrict some activities relating to cryptocurrency in the country “to protect the public from speculative risks.” He said at the time, “we sent our proposals to the government, in which we suggest carrying out a series of tougher measures, including prohibiting the exchange of the national currency for cryptocurrencies, prohibiting the activities of some companies that generate cryptocurrencies and so on.”

Meanwhile, interest in cryptocurrency in the country has jumped 15-fold early this year compared to the previous year, according to Yandex. Citizens are also searching 10 times more for terms related to video cards, crypto mining, as well as how to mine.

What do you think of the central bank of Kazakhstan’s action? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Kevin Helms

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.

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